By James Scarborough Gazette Theater Critic
She Loves Me" Light, Lively Love Note

What fresh heaven is this? A sweet and lively production of "She Loves Me," at Musical Theatre West, directed and choreographed by Jamie Rocco. Even though the story is a no-brainer, you still wish you were the me or the she of the pronouns of the title. Valentine's Day comes early in this story about the vagaries of love that occurs in the 1930s, before chat rooms, and before you not only had to speculate as to the appearance of your pen pal but their gender, age, criminal rap sheet and species as well.

Georg Nowack (John Bison) works as head clerk in a perfume shop owned by Mr. Maraczek (Nils Anderson). Other clerks include Ilona Ritter (Christina Saffran Ashford), Amalia Balash (Teri Bibb), Steven Kodaly (Stan Chandler) and Arpad Laszlo (Adam Wylie).

They're a collegial enough group, sexy, Eastern European stylish; they brim with hormones and dress well. Georg and Amalia have been writing to each other for simply ages, so it's just a matter of time before they meet. At work of course, they despise each other and don't know that each is the other. If this story sounds like "Sleepless in Seattle," that's because the movie was based on this musical.

Bibb was a fabulous Amalia. She wasn't as ostentatious as Ashford's Ilona but that made her low-key flirtiness and her prim dance steps and movements all the more appealing. She sang like a bird, especially when she realized, in "Vanilla Ice Cream" that she loved Georg as Georg and not as Dear Friend. She's so starry-eyed at the prospect of meeting Georg ("Will He Like Me?") that I wanted the musical to skip ahead and get them together already.

Bison was an endearing and hapless Georg. Gawky if not gallant and funny in spite of himself, he was solid and dependable, not flashy and sleazy like Chandler's philandering wanker, Kodaly.

They looked so good together - biology overrode chemistry and even physics in the science of love - that I had already picked out the names of their children by the interval.

I despised Chandler's Kodaly, which is good because, with his cut-too-well suit, his swagger, and his Dubya smirk, he was a first-class schmuck. And I adored Ashford's Ilona, with her lyrical boy crazy smile.

William Forrester's sets captured the old world elegance of what I think was Budapest and set the stage for the funniest part of the show: Amalia awaits Georg at The Cafe Imperiale for their first date while the Headwaiter (James W. Gruessing, Jr.) maintains that his Pandora's Box of drunkenness, fornication and spousal warfare was just the place for a quiet, discreet and intimate meal ("A Romantic Atmosphere").

The play runs until Nov. 21. The Carpenter Performing Arts Center is located at 6200 Atherton St., on the California State University, Long Beach, campus. Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. A special Sunday performance is a 7 p.m. on Nov. 14.

For more information, call 856-1999 ext. 4 or visit .

November 11, 2004

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